Ari Dimas' Soccer Blog: Week 1Senior midfielder will blog throughout the season on VirginiaSports.com

Ari Dimas

Aug. 22, 2012

Senior midfielder Ari Dimas will blog about the UVa men's soccer team on VirginiaSports.com weekly throughout the regular season. Look for his updates every Monday as the season progresses.

Virginia opens its 2012 season Friday against Georgetown in the ACC/BIG EAST Challenge in Germantown, Md.

Greetings, everyone! Ari Dimas here, checking in from the men's soccer team's preseason camp. The team officially reported for camp in early August, and it has been a grind of two-a-days and scrimmages since then. We generally have been training twice a day with team meals in between sessions, so we spend most of our time together. When we are not on the pitch or at a meal, we are probably in bed recharging the batteries. "Eat, sleep, play soccer" perfectly sums up what we have been doing.

We have had two exhibition matches, and we scrimmage frequently during training. In our first preseason match, we defeated St. John's 1-0, and we looked pretty good. A few days later, we comfortably topped Liberty 3-0. We are still figuring out what kind of tactical formation and strategies to use, and it is really cool to be part of the experimenting. The team seems to be coming together well!

Our season opener is this Friday against Georgetown. This match will be a good measure of the progress that we have made during preseason and of our potential for the rest of the year. The hope, as always, is to play good soccer and to get a result. Our first home game is the following Friday against California - come out to support us as we open our home slate!

After two consecutive years of NCAA Tournament first-round losses, we are ready to bounce back and make a run in the postseason. We have a very strong core of returning experience (including a few of us from the 2009 NCAA and ACC championship team) that should combine neatly with the wealth of fresh young talent on our roster. We believe that we have what it takes to make something special happen this year, and we will be working hard toward that end. Look out for us! Until next time, Go Hoos!